5 Summer Activities For Complex Learners
After months of projects, papers, and tests – summertime can be a well-deserved break for your Complex Learner to rest and recharge! While summer is naturally less structured and more relaxed than the school year, you may still want your child to participate in engaging and educational activities to help them continue to develop new skills and retain lessons learned throughout the year.
It can be difficult enough to come up with summertime activities for Complex Learners but this summer brings with it a new challenge. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, summertime might look a bit different this year. Instead of family vacations, visits to the museum, or weekly trips to the community pool, you might find you and your family home more often. And after months of distance learning, you might be looking for non-screen related activities to help occupy your child’s time. So, what can you do?
Check out our 5 summertime activities for Complex Learners to beat summertime boredom!
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Build Your Own Obstacle Course
This idea is a favorite from Wolf School Connected! To incorporate both movement and creativity have your child construct their own obstacle course! This activity can be done either inside or outside making it a perfect choice regardless of the weather. Build a balance beam from pillows, draw a hopscotch path with chalk, or crawl through a fort made with blankets and chairs. The possibilities are endless!
This is sure to be a favorite for both you and your child. While your child will enjoy getting to construct the obstacle course and get creative with household items, you’ll love how movement can help calm your child’s mind and body. This is a great activity to get out some excess energy.
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Shaving Cream Fun
Playing in shaving cream can be a calming and entertaining sensory activity for Complex Learners! All you need for this is shaving cream, some foam building blocks and a location – which can be outside on the sidewalk or inside on a plastic tray or a surface you don’t mind getting a little messy.
Cover your play surface with shaving cream. Then have your child practice writing in the shaving cream, try his hand at drawing some art or fun designs, or building structures with the foam building blocks and using the shaving cream as a “glue” between the blocks.
The feeling and consistency of shaving cream along with the action of squishing and moving the shaving cream can be a very fun sensory activity!
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Cooking
Getting your Complex Learner to practice both their reading and math skills during the summer is easy when you try your hand at cooking and baking!
Have your child find a new recipe online or in a cookbook that he wants to try. Then have him help you write up a list of ingredients, put together a budget for the grocery store, and keep track of how much you’re spending as you buy the ingredients together.
When you’re cooking – practice some math skills by doubling the recipe or cutting it in half! You can practice time skills by having your child keep track of how long your treat has been in the oven. Cooking with your child can also be a great way to get your picky eater to try new foods!
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Adapt a favorite story into a movie
On rainy days, instead of just popping in a movie, ask your child if he would like to make his own! All you need is a cellphone with a camera and an idea!
Encourage your child to write a short script based off of one of his favorite movies or an original idea. Then using a cellphone camera to film, his script can come to life! Siblings or family members can help with costumes, sets, and even step in as actors. For older children, you can even have him try his hand at editing the footage.
Once complete, have the whole family get together for a fun “premiere” night to watch the film!
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Online summer camp options
Online summer camp options might sound like more time in front of the screen, but schools and camps are getting more and more creative as camps turn virtual for the safety of their students and community.
With the Wolf School’s summer camp program, Camp Confidence, our campers will enjoy some screen time fun but also plenty of offline activities! This also provides a chance for your Complex Learner to enjoy some social time with classmates and friends and can provide some needed structure to their day!
Summertime might look a little different this year but with some creativity and flexible thinking – it’s sure to be a lot of fun! What are some summertime activities you love to do with your Complex Learner? Share them in the comments below!
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